Popular e-commerce site Lazada on Wednesday opened its third hub in Davao City, a move which is expected to speed up the delivery of items to its growing list of online customers in southern Mindanao, and serve the needs of online sellers from the region where economic growth rates have exceeded the country`s.
In an Oct 5 Businessworld article, Lazada said that the new facility along Diversion Road, Barangay Buhangin in Davao City can send out 25,000 items to customers every day, and can hold as much as 250,000 items.
“Our new warehouse provides our sellers a distribution hub in a high-potential region, allowing Lazada to fulfill more orders from and to Mindanao faster and more efficiently,” Lazada eLogistics (LeL) Philippines chief executive officer Juan Pavez Spencer said in a statement sent to Businessworld.
In the same statement, Lazada noted that the warehouse in the south is expected to double the number of shipments to and from the region before the year ends.Lazada said the new warehouse is "hoped to spur the growth of e-commerce in Mindanao, as almost 500 businesses from the region are currently with the online shopping platform."
The southern Mindanao regions of Davao and SOCKSARGEN enjoy robust local growth with respective Gross Regional Domestic Product rates of more than 10 and 8 percent in 2017, exceeding the nations 6.8% and regional unemployment figures have fallen to 3%, far better than the recent record low 5.4% unemployment average clocked in June 2018. Economists note that high growth and low unemployment rates are fertile ground for e-commerce and retail sales.
"This is just the beginning of e-commerce… and Davao is part of this now,” Lazada Philippines chief executive officer Raymond N. Alimurung was quoted in the statement as saying.
In an interview last September
2 with the Philippine Star, Mr. Alimurung said last month that Lazada is looking to double sales in the country this year. The fast moving company is driven to the same success of its parent company in China, Alibaba.
